Malaria diagnosis under field conditions in the Venezuelan Amazon

To improve practical, accurate diagnosis of malaria in the Amazon rainforest of Venezuela, two rapid diagnostic tests (RDT) (OptiMAL-IT ® and FalciVax ®) and a laboratory light microscope, used in the field with a battery-operated head lamp as an external light source, were evaluated against the standard laboratory microscope procedure for malaria detection. One hundred and thirty-six Yanomami patients were studied for the presence of malaria parasites. Thirty-three patients (24%) were positive for malaria ( Plasmodium falciparum, P. vivax, P. malariae). Twenty-one (64%) of the positive patients had